


getting better is enough

by greyedscale



Series: atla femslash week 2020 [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Compulsive Heterosexuality, F/F, F/M, First Gay Crush, Mai (Avatar)-Centric, Modern AU, Past Azula/Mai (Avatar), Past Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Recovery, Soft Mai (Avatar), discovering gay identity, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25896790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyedscale/pseuds/greyedscale
Summary: Mai wants to show her appreciation to her girlfriend and tries to cook breakfast. It goes…about how’d you expect for someone with so little experience.
Relationships: Azula/Mai (Avatar), Mai & Ty Lee (Avatar) characters: Mai (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: atla femslash week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876537
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	getting better is enough

Mai knows she’s not the best at expressing emotions. Growing up in a political family, attending events with her parents… well, she’s learned to mask her emotions from a young age. And then her parents had wanted her to date Zuko, which, well, she didn’t mind exactly, or rather, she didn’t mind going along with it. It wasn’t a very good time for either of them; with Zuko’s mother having disappeared and his father so clearly hating him, they both got each other through their teenage angst years.

And then Zuko had been shipped off to a boarding school, and Mai had gone to the Regiis Ignis Academy for Girls, where she had truly met Azula for the first time. She had also met her best friend, Ty Lee, there, and it was through a late-night conversation with Ty Lee that she realized that liking girls was an option. And didn’t that open up a whole new world to her? She realized she hadn’t cared about going along with her plans with Zuko, not because she wasn’t interested in dating, but rather because she wasn’t interested in _boys_. `[1]`

It was a rather confusing time after that, realizing all the crushes she’d had on girls. And then she had started dating Azula. In secret. While still ‘officially’ dating Zuko. That time of her life… could have been considered both the best and worst she’s ever felt. She had been on such an emotional rush, had experienced so many feelings being with Azula. So, even as Azula had hurt her, it had still been so freeing from the bland, blank life she had before. But, Azula was critical and controlling. Mai had to get permission to do anything, and the lows were the even more painful than anything she’s ever experienced before, but the highs, the elation and bliss and pure, unadulterated joy Azula had brought her… it almost made up for it all.

She was stuck in a cycle of hating everything about herself and her life and grasping the short moments of incredible lightness in her life. She hadn’t realized how lost she was until Ty Lee had pulled her aside for an intervention one day. After that, she convinced Mai to talk to Zuko about what had happened; he was understanding, knowing how manipulative Azula could be just from his own experiences, confessing his own discovery of his bisexuality to her.

That’s all to say, Ty Lee’s been her rock for a very long time, and now that they’re together, Mai’s always trying to be a better person for her. She’s been trying to express her emotions better, trying to be softer, less cynical.

So, today, on a day with no real meaning, Mai is trying to surprise Ty Lee with something nice. Mai knows that Ty Lee values effort over expensive things that can be bought with money, which is why she is here, trying to figure out how to cook breakfast, knowing full well that no one has ever taught her to cook. Growing up, her mother had expected her to always have a servant on hand to cook and had never bothered with such mundane things herself. Mai, however, wants to be better, wants to make an effort, especially since Ty Lee and her are sharing an apartment now.

Mai wakes up at exactly 6 AM, knowing Ty Lee had a long night yesterday with gymnastics practice and won’t wake up until around 8 AM. This gives her around 2 hours to figure out how the fuck she’s going to cook. She walks silently down the hall towards the portable cooler she hid behind the curtains. She had borrowed the cooler from Zuko last week so that she could hide the ingredients from Ty Lee, who did most of the shopping and stocking of the fridge and would _definitely_ notice extra food in there, thus ruining the surprise.

She quietly takes the food into the kitchen and is immediately met with a problem: there’s no way to cook bacon quietly. But then, she remembers that Ty Lee is a heavy sleeper, one who wouldn’t even wake up to Azula’s screaming. So, she decides she’s good to continue. She goes about chopping the peppers, mushrooms, and onions. The pieces may not be uniform looking and may have taken longer to chop than normal because she had to stop every thirty seconds to check with Google that she’s doing this right, but really, she’s tried her best, and she kind of proud of her work. She then gets to the part that she knows a little better: preparing the egg. She cracks two eggs into a bow and starts whisking with a pair of chopsticks–the way she had always seen her nanny do it. Her brows are furrowed in concentration goes through the rhythmic movement. _How long should she beat the eggs? Are they supposed to look a certain way? Wait!_ _Hadn’t she read in a book somewhere that some milk should be added to make the eggs… fluffier? Or something? But, is Ty Lee lactose intolerant? Shouldn’t she know this about her own girlfriend? Hmmm…_

Mai reasons that it should be safe to add some milk (not a lot!) since she remembers Ty Lee being fond of oat milk, but also drinking regular milk when it’s not an option. Hopefully she doesn’t fuck this up…. She wonders if she should Google again how much milk to add before deciding: fuck it, she’s just going to pour an amount and hope for the best. Another whisk later, and she’s almost ready to try combining everything for the omelet.

Mai checks the recipe she’s pulled up on her phone three more times before sighing. Well, nothing’s really going to change if she reads it a fourth or even fifth time. She gathers the bowls of ingredients a little closer, puts a spoonful of oil on the pan, and starts the stove.

In the end, she tries to flip the omelet, messes up, and resolves to eat the failed omelet herself. She tries again to slightly better (albeit not by much) results. She’s half-way through frying the bacon and has only just figured out how to not burn the meat to a crisp when she hears Ty Lee starting to wake up in their shared bedroom. She panics, piling the rest of the bacon on there, quickly pivoting to start up the coffee machine. This moment of inattention proves to be almost fatal, nearly causing her to burn the bacon, but she remembers at the last second that she still has food cooking on the pan and lunges to flip everything. This is the moment Ty Lee walks in on, letting out a surprised giggle at how uncomposed Mai looks. Mai’s too focused on the food to realize Ty Lee’s walked in on her preparing the surprise, and only when she transfers the last piece of bacon off the pan and turns around, does she realize Ty Lee is sitting amusedly at the kitchen counter, staring fondly at her.

Mai blushes in embarrassment at being caught in the act but is unable to break eye contact. Ty Lee opens her arms. “C’mere, you softy!”

Mai hurries to cross to the other side of the counter and hugs her girlfriend, burying herself in the rush of positive emotions that comes with the act.

“I just wanted to surprise you with something nice. You’ve helped me so much, but I feel like I haven’t done enough for you,” Mai whispers into Ty Lee’s neck.

“Silly,” Ty Lee remarks lovingly, “You getting better is enough for me. Us being together is enough for me.”

“I know I’m bad with emotions but, you know I love you, right, Ty Lee?”

“Of course! I love you too, Mai.”


End file.
